Zawahiri Asks Pakistanis To Revolt Against Their Govt

Cairo: Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri has asked Pakistanis to revolt against their "corrupt" government for its "failure" to provide succour to countrymen devastated by worst-ever floods. Labelling President Asif Ali Zardari as a "thief too

Cairo: Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri has asked Pakistanis to revolt against their "corrupt" government for its "failure" to provide succour to countrymen devastated by worst-ever floods.

Labelling President Asif Ali Zardari as a "thief too busy with mending his ties with the West", Zawahiri charged the ruling class in Pakistan as well as the Pakistan army of filling their domestic and foreign bank accounts with dollars and paying scant attention to the people reeling under the floods.

"It is a catastrophe that has befallen on Pakistan. Its ruling class and army are filling their bank accounts with dollars and as far as they are concerned: Pakistan and its people can go to hell," Zawahiri, the deputy of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, said in a 44-minute video that was released in Arabic, English, Pashto and Urdu languages.

Massive floods in Pakistan have affected over 20 million people submerging thousands of hectares of lands, villages and killing around 1,700 people.

"The silence of our people in Pakistan towards these corrupt people is the obvious reason for their failure to get any relief," said 59-year-old Egyptian born Zawahiri.

Zawahiri, along with his supremo Osama bin Laden, is believed to be holed up in Pakistan's remote unruly tribal region, close to the border with Afghanistan.

In the video titled 'A Victorious Ummah, A Broken Crusade', released on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Zawahiri asked Muslims to embrace jihad and to avoid compromising Islamic principles.

"The forces of jihad... have emerged victorious and the forces of the Crusader invasion have emerged weakened by their wounds and exhausted by the haemorrhage of human and financial losses," he said.

Zawahiri also slammed pro-Western leaders including Zardari, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei and called them "corrupt".